Wednesday, 21 September 2011

BCS President’s Report September 2011

As is usual September began
with a flourish.

The UKCC met in York on Monday 5 September. The main topics
raised were: first, the ICC in Paris - David Forrest gave a report on the work
of the General Assembly and all had an opportunity to comment on the
organisation of the event.The UK won 2
awards, Best Thematic Map – Ken Field and Best Educational Cartographic Product
(Digital) – HarperCollins. Second, there were reports from Commission chairs
and vice-chairs and lastly, there was an initial discussion on the UKCC Review.
A draft paper has been circulated to Council for comment by 30 September prior
to a second draft. In future, details of the UKCC’s work and ICA events,
commission reports etc will be posted on the BCS website for all to see. Work on this has already begun.

The following day the Council
also met at the same venue. This was a routine meeting covering membership and
finance, the UKCC Review, Committee and SIG reports. There was also a
discussion about having a lunchtime event for Fellows in the spring next year
and that discussion is on-going.

On Wednesday the Map Curator’s Group met and I understand had a very successful meeting. My thanks
go to Ann Sutherland, April Carlucci, Anne Taylor and Paula Williams for
running and organising the event.

We, BCS, have a stand at the
AGI Geocommunity ’11 conference in Nottingham 21-22 September. This will be
another opportunity to encourage attendees to join BCS. Over the last 12 months
membership has increased significantly, up to 657 compared with 615 at the same
time last year and, as a result, in part, the financial position of the Society
has strengthened. As well as new members from the UK we have new members from
Chile, Nigeria, USA and Australia.

FREE attendance for Year 10s

On Monday, 26 September, the
BCS team led by Peter Jones, will be presenting the ‘Restless Earth’ package to
the year 10 students at Lampton School, Hounslow, in the morning and about 70
students from other schools in the area in the afternoon. It should be a great
day.

The following day the UK
GEOForum meets at Canary Wharf to discuss matters of mutual interest to the 15
member societies. These meetings are always useful as we can discuss and debate
the common concerns.

Next, the cut-off date for
submission of articles for the Winter edition of Maplines is 13 October so
please make sure that if you have a contribution to make that Lynda Bailey and
her team get the information and photographs etc on time. I should also tell
you that Martin Lubikowski has taken over as the chairman of the Publications
Committee. Our thanks go to Peter Collier for the work he did as Martin’s
predecessor.

November 1 is an important
date for your diary. There will be a curry lunch in the RAF Club followed by
the GIS SIG. The SIG is open to everyone and is entitled, ‘GIS and Schematic
Mapping’. These maps are particularly popular in the transport industry and at
the end of the sessions we should know more about their uses, advantages and
limitations so please do come and join in. There will also be a report of the
recent ICC in Paris by David Forrest which again should be of interest to all.
Then it will be time for the AGM at which the election results for Council for
the coming year will be announced. Roger Hore will be sending out all the necessary
paper work shortly. All booking details are on the BCS website.

About The BCS

Views or opinions expressed in the pages of this site do not necessarily represent those of The BCS

The British Cartographic Society (BCS) is a dynamic association of individuals and organisations dedicated to exploring and developing the world of maps. Our membership includes mapping companies, publishers, designers, academics, GIS users, and more.